The series, which is set in 2025, follows two brothers, one already a member of the astronaut corps preparing for an international mission to the moon, and the other, a JAXA astronaut candidate hoping to go to Mars.

The animated series, which is based on a manga (comic) by the same title, uses JAXA's and NASA's names and logos, and blends real and fictional spacecraft and places. NASA's Kennedy and Johnson space centers appear, as does JAXA's H-II rocket and NASA's Orion.

Noguchi appears in the series' 13th episode during a flashback that recalls when the brothers attended a speech by the astronaut when they were younger. Noguchi recorded the audio in May and the episode premiered last month.

A friend in Japan told me this is a pretty popular series, and has already been made in the live action movie, but she didn't know much about it as she's not a space fan...

I find it very odd that there's next to no merchandizing out there, as Japanese companies often market the living heck out of movies. Even an eBay search turns up next to nothing.

It'd be neat to get copies of the missions patches just to confuse people who haven't seen the film.

p51

The DVD of the live action movie is coming out in Japan in December according to this website.

Hopefully it'll be able to be found here in the US. I want to see this, even if I can't understand it.

p51

One thing's for sure, this has to be the strangest 'mission' patch for a TV series and movie ever!

The dog is named Apo, apparently one of the brothers runs across him in Houston and he becomes a part of the storyline...

p51

I just got a copy of the DVD of the live action movie today and watched it. My Japanese is VERY rusty but I was surprised how poorly delivered the lines by clearly American actors were. Buzz Aldrin does a cameo, of himself... in 2025? Yeah, that seemed quite odd, but not nearly as odd as how he delivered his lines. I know he's not an actor, but his appearance in the Transformers movie was King Learcompared to this, and it was more the writing. I can't believe he didn't see the lines and say to someone, "You realize no English speaker talks like this".

Great FX shots of the launches, you really believe it when you see them. The plot is not that big a deal and there are some gravity issues on the Moon scenes (and how nobody can simulate a pressurzed space suit in movies), but all the hardware is quite acceptable and they clearly had full NASA cooperation.